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Home > About Us What’s New at Chicago a cappellaChicago a cappella at Naperville North High School
All season, students from Naperville North High School have received free tickets to Chicago a cappella's concerts at Wentz Concert Hall. These ongoing educational projects are part of Chicago a cappella's work to enrich the lives of students through training in and exposure to professional choral singing. We are grateful to the Naperville North community, choir director James Yarbrough, and the Naperville Education Foundation for helping us achieve these goals. We hope to continue and expand projects like this one in the years ahead, but we need your help. The generosity of our friends has enabled us to achieve wonderful success and reach more people than ever before. Please consider supporting our work with a contribution today. Food drive brings home the theme of "Abundance" at February concerts
In these harsh economic times, Chicago a cappella brought home the theme of its recent concert, Abundance, by spearheading a food drive at all four performances. Audience members donated food item for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and 494 pounds of food was collected in all—providing 371 quality meals for the hungry in our community. In addition, audience members made monetary donations after each performance, and over $300 was donated to the Depository. Thank you to everyone whose generosity helped make this possible.
Chicago a cappella releases its seventh CD recording
Read the review on Classics Today.com. Chicago a cappella is 15 years old! Chicago a cappella celebrated its 15th anniversary last fall. The ensemble's very first concerts took place September 7 and 8, 1993, at The Theatre Building in Chicago. The program included Renaissance music by Mathurin Forestier, African-American spirituals, new works, and vocal jazz. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote of this first performance, “Chicago a cappella, a vocal group dedicated to music performed without accompaniment, made an impressive debut Tuesday at the Theatre Building, performing a surprising variety of modern and historical works....The choral singers sang swing, country, spirituals, liturgical fare and early music with equal amounts of enthusiasm and skill....these musicians seem to be blessed with perfect pitch. The members of Chicago a cappella merely open their mouths and create focused, tightly harmonized sound.” Thanks to the hundreds of people who have supported us for the past 15 years. We could not have survived and thrived without your help. Thank you and Happy Anniversary!
Jonathan Miller receives prestigious national award Chicago a cappella's Founder and Artistic Director Jonathan Miller has been honored with the prestigious Louis Botto Award by Chorus America at the organization's annual conference on June 14. The award recognizes innovative action and entrepreneurial zeal in developing a professional choral ensemble. Miller is only the sixth recipient of the award since its creation in 1998. Read more in the press release. Jonathan Miller receives the Louis Botto Award from Chorus America board member Janet Sarbaugh (above) and makes remarks (below) at Chorus America's national conference in Denver on June 14.
Acclaimed composer Tania León wrote an exciting new piece as the finale to Chicago a cappella's 15th Anniversary Commissioning Series. Her Estampas was performed at the ensemble's recent concert, Voces latinas. We caught up with Tania between her many engagements to find out more about the piece: Tell me about the three-movement structure of Estampas. All three poems are by Cuban-born women now living in the U.S., and the poetry definitely inspired this structure. I think of the piece as being three “snapshots,” just descriptions of a particular moment: looking at a landscape, a mother holding her child, really universal moments that are part of our human experience regardless of our culture or heritage. I have previously written music set to poems by all three of these poets, and have known these women for a long time. In the previous piece, their work was mixed with that of other poets. I liked the idea of putting these three poets together, showing how different three points of view can be, even from people born in the same place. Can you describe the sound that you had in mind when composing Estampas? Are there particular musical associations or connections to particular rhythms you're hoping to evoke? There are Cuban overtones in the music, some are traditional sounds, some are derivatives of son. Son is the primary source of many forms of expressions in Cuba, and can be considered the “classical” expression of music of that culture. This influence also transcends Cuba to the rest of the Caribbean. Can you talk a bit about writing for vocal ensemble? Is it more or less challenging than composing for symphonic forces, for example, or instrumental ensembles? Not necessarily – when I want to write for any specific force in music, I get into that. In fact, before I begin, I listen to a lot of choral music – it doesn’t matter what style: early music, avant garde, even music of other cultures. My intention is to get closer to the power of the voice, whether I’m writing for a vocal soloist or an ensemble. I also love to connect with the sound of each specific ensemble. [Before undertaking a new commission] I usually ask for a recording, so I can get acquainted with the group's individual voice – each ensemble has its own voice. I try to work into the piece my understanding of what that sound means to me. [Before writing Estampas] I listened to two of Chicago a cappella’s CDs, and I was struck by the variety of music. It gave me the possibility to create whatever style I wanted to create. What are you working on next? Right after I leave Chicago, I travel to Beijing, China, to open an international congress of women composers with my piece Horizons. That piece just came out on a new CD called Singin' Sepia. After the congress, I stay in Beijing one more week to act as composer/conductor-in-residence at the Beijing Conservatory. In early May I’m conducting a concert of my own music at Symphony Space in Manhattan, and of course continuing my teaching in the graduate center at the City University of New York. I’m also working on a new ballet with a Brazilian company, which will premiere in spring 2009, a string quartet for the Emerson Quartet, and my first real band piece for the Harvard University Band. New Chicago a cappella T-Shirt Fans will want to grab one of our cool new slate gray T-shirts. Surprise the Chicago a cappella fan in your life with a great gift! |
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Chicago
a cappella is a business partner of Naperville School District 203,
and this year the ensemble has been working with the choral students at
Naperville North High School. Last fall, the school's Madrigal
Ensemble rehearsed a piece with the women of Chicago a cappella and
then performed it with them—along with several of their own selections—at
